Letters:Tourists unwelcome at AT&T

On my bicycle commute home I encountered a sign; "No Tourists," outside the Pacific Grove/Pebble Beach gate. Not being a tourist, I pedaled on and was met with vigorous waving from the attendant. I, of course, returned the courtesy. How curious to exclude tourists the week of the Pro-Am. As I mused, a little truck pulled alongside. Perhaps this was outreach designed to boost local visitation. Alas, I learned that not only tourists but bicyclists and donkey's derrires were not welcome. Well, I thought, the company has put its foot down and is kicking out tourists, and badly behaving sorts. I thanked the employee for the update and continued on my way. The following day as I pedaled home, I was met with a new sign outside the gate; "No bicyclists." Ah-Ha! The company had zeroed in on the source of the undesirables and it was bicyclists! I returned the vigorous wave of the gate guard once again as I sped past. Only this time I didn't get the chance to chat with any Pebble Beach employees in their courtesy trucks. I guess they were too busy shooing away the donkey derrire types to bother with me.

Daniel Emerson

Carmel

Pine Cone owes business owner apology

A newspaper should not slander small business owners and community leaders; however, this is what the Carmel Pine Cone did in its most recent edition. Amber Phillips, the owner of Racey Promotions, was my student in fall 2012. She is a dedicated student, who earned high marks in my English 2 Critical Thinking class at Monterey Peninsula College, while running her successful business and raising her two children. She has great integrity, a strong work ethic, and she is the model of decorum. She works with all of "her girls" and makes sure they stay in school and regularly perform community service. We cannot stop people from being intolerant and small-minded, but the publisher of the Carmel Pine Cone, Paul Miller, should not have compounded the ignorance by promoting it in his paper in the article "Hardy: Vesuvio tequila party 'disgusting' and 'appalling.'" The Carmel Pine Cone should have more integrity than this article demonstrates, so it behooves the newspaper to apologize to Phillips and her employees, and to write an apology in the next issue.

Kathleen Leonard

English adjunct instructor, MPC

Apologies, retraction not enough for story

The girls' parents should absolutely sue The Carmel Pine Cone and anyone involved with this story. A retraction and apologies are absolutely not enough. An online legal fund should be started to help the girls affected move forward with their defamation lawsuits.

Bill Carpenter Jr.

Auburn

Wolf needs to crawl out of his man cave

When I read Arnold Wolf's column on Feb. 4, I thought I had been transported back to the dark days of my mother's era: when women could not get credit cards in their own name, when classified ads were gender specified, when women were steered away from science or math, and when we were accused of enticing a rapist because we wore the wrong clothing.

Wolf purports his goal is not to "disparage women," but that's what he does. What saves my sisters and I from taking this too seriously is the silly examples he uses to expose our inferior nature: how we handle our shopping carts, finding our way around town and intersection courtesy? Heavy stuff.

In regards to his comments on the "biology" behind our desperate need for commitment, I think Wolf needs to crawl out of his man cave and see current statistics on divorce, single women raising kids alone by choice and women choosing not to marry.

It's OK with me if women are more diplomatic at intersections. I just wish we had more of this kind of sex- determined diplomacy world-wide instead of violence, sex abuse scandals and environmental degradation largely perpetrated by men.

Amy Brewster

Salinas

Letter writer missed point of Obama speech

In his Feb. 8 rant against President Barack Obama's second inaugural address, Wayne Farber zeroes in on the president's use of the term "collective," which Farber identifies as "a socialist idea," as though the mere idea of its being socialistic should send shivers of terror down our spines.

Farber seems to be under the false impression that our economic system is based on pure capitalism, which it is not. We tried a pure form of laisez-faire capitalism in the 19th and early 20th centuries and it didn't work. The era of the robber barons taught us that in order to create a viable and sustainable socio-economic system, we need a hybrid system that includes elements of both capitalism and socialism. The trick is to find the correct blend of the good elements of both.

Our constitution is a good example of this balancing act. The preamble stresses our striving for the common good and then balances that group goal with individual rights outlined in the first 10 amendments.

What President Obama is suggesting is that our system has gotten out of balance, and we need to rein in some of our capitalistic tendencies and shore up some socialistic ones.

Frank Losik

Monterey

Things other than guns kill, too

I find it puzzling that politicians and the anti-gun crowd say we must do something to prevent the deaths of innocent people. Now is the time! We cannot stand by and watch the innocent get slaughtered.

Here are some facts from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Each day 15 people are killed and 1,200 people are injured by distracted driving. In 2009 more than 5,400 people were killed and 448,000 people were injured due to distracted driving. Nearly 1,000 of those deaths and 24,000 injuries were caused by cell phone usage that year. I am a school teacher at San Benancio Middle School and have personally witnessed several parents talking on their cell phones last week as they picked up their children after school. Why aren't the politicians trying to ban these cell phones? Aren't they weapons of mass destruction also? Maybe cell phone users need background checks, permits, and insurance for their cell phones just like those of us who like to hunt.